Porsche Carrera Cup Sachsenring

Free practice:

Our 60 minute free practice session started well. It was dry and sunny and we were able to do some set up changes.
However, 40 minutes into the session another competitor crashed which caused our session to be red flagged.
Due to heavy safety barrier damage from the accident our free practice would resume 4 hours later and around 6pm.
In the evening when our session resumed it had started raining.

Qualifying:

Qualifying was early on Saturday morning. Initially it was meant to be raining at the time but the weather was on our side and we had again a blue, cloudless sky.
In my first outing I pushed a bit too hard and made a trip through the gravel pit, in which I lost my front lip.
I had to pit in order to get my front lip replaced and change for a new set of tyres.

Eventually I was able to qualify in 4th for race 1 & 8th for race 2 on Sunday.

Race 1:

By the time our first race was to commence, heavy rain started pouring down.
I had a good start off the line and was able to hold my 4th place through turn 1.
In lap 3 I caught up with my team mate and it was an intense battle until the finishing line.
Several times we were fender on fender. The battle stayed fair and I finished the race in 4th, taking home important points.

Race 2:

Compared to the first race, our race on Sunday morning was quite uneventful for me. My start was that good so I lost one position. The pace of the driver’s in front and behind of me were
basically the same.

There wasn’t ever a good chance to overtake so 9th place was the best that I could do in that race.

Porsche Carrera Cup Norisring

Free practice:

Only 4 turns but a street circuit is always a different challenge.
Called the “franconian Monaco” in Germany, the Norisring is a very iconic venue.

Last year while racing in 3rd place, Chris’ race ended on the last lap of the race due to a technical error on the car.

Qualifying was a bit different to the normal Porsche Carrera Cup Qualifying layout.
All the driver’s had 20 minutes and only 1 set of new tyres. It was forbidden to change tyres duing the first 20 minute session.
After the first session, the fastest 15 cars proceeded into the next qualifying session, in which the 15 driver’s were allowed to use a new set of Michelin tyres.

Chris managed to qualify 4th for both races .

Race 1:

Race was delayed by nearly 2 hours due to a heavy crash in another race.
Eventually at 7:10 pm the race commenced on a still damp and wet track.
All the cars started the race on slick tyres.

In lap 2 Chris managed a fantastic overtake manoeuvre. He put himself on the inside of Jeffrey Schmidt and passed him under braking in Turn 1.

From there onwards Chris had to defend his 3rd place from Philipp Eng.

Chris saw the chequered flag in 3rd place.

Race 2:

At 10 am the race started in the wet. All cars were on rain tyres.
Chris had a really good start but couldn’t overtake anyone in turn 1 due to limited visibility.

Christopher is currently leading the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland Championship !

Porsche Carrera Cup Hungaroring

Free Practice:

Friday 10am, Christopher arrived at the Hungaroring for the free practice session. The weather was less than ideal, light drizzle and cloudy. When the 37 Porsche Carrera GT3 Cup cars
were let on track at 2:25pm, thankfully the rain had stopped. Though the track was completely dry the driver’s had to stay away from the curbs which were still treacherously slippery.
During his 25 laps Chris had to make several significant changes to his car to find the right setup for Saturday’s qualifying. Having set the 4th fastest lap time, Chris
eventually finished free practice on P9 as other drivers opted for a new set of Michelin tyres.

Qualifying:

Back to business, or at least that was what Chris had hoped, when he entered Saturday’s Qualifying session in his #7 Konrad Porsche GT3 Cup. Long story short, for Race 1 on Saturday Chris
will start from 10th place 0.684 seconds behind 1st. For Sunday’s race Chris will have to fight himself through the field, having qualified 12th. Not the
result that Chris and the team were expecting.

Race 1:

The first race of the weekend was scheduled to commence at 5:10 pm. Unfortunately a serious crash during an earlier race meant the race was delayed while the track side barrier had to be
repaired. The new start time for the race was set for 7:30 pm.

Christopher had an OK start. Engine RPM was very low and after Turn 1 Chris had dropped back to 11th. Chris’ race turned however, when after lap 2 or 3 he found himself in
9th position. Suffering from severe understeer Chris struggled to keep his #7 Konrad Porsche under control. He could keep the pace of the pack in front but didn’t have the
speed to start an attack for 8th. Nonetheless, taking home 7 important championship points was an acceptable result given the technical problems he was contending with.

Race 2:

Thanks to another driver receiving a 10 grid penalty, Christopher would start the race from 11th on Sunday morning. Just behind his team mate on 10th. The start
for Chris wasn’t too bad but not too good either. Just after the start of the race, approaching Turn 1 there was yet another crash involving 3 cars. Chris managed to avoid any contact and
squeezed past the carnage, putting #7 Konrad Porsche on 6th place after the first lap.

Chris found himself under constant pressure from 2 cars behind. Both Clemens Schmidt and Alex Riberas had opted for new tyres for the race and as the laps passed Chris found himself struggling to
keep the pace on his old tyres from Qualifying. After 7 laps of great defending, Chris wasn’t able to hold off their attacks any longer and they slipped passed in turn 1.

Nearing the end of the race, Christopher was suffering with further technical problems, on reflection possibly a damper problem or a tyre pressure issue. At the end of the race Christopher took
home 8th place, again important championship points, maintaining his position in the top 3 in the championship.

Porsche Carrera Cup Oschersleben

Porsche Carrera Cup Germany Oschersleben 16. – 18. May 2014

Free Practice:

Unlike the Porsche Mobil 1 Super Cup, we had 60 minutes of free practice on Friday and that gave us enough time to fine tune Christopher’s #7 Konrad Porsche GT3 Cup.

Throughout the first 40 minutes Chris was somewhere between 2nd and 5th with his lap time.
Only in the end of the session, when some of the other driver’s went out on track with a new set up tyres, Chris fell back to 14th place.
Despite only P14 Chris was very confident that during Saturday’s Qualifying a Top 5 result would be possible.

Qualifying:

Long story short, Christopher clocked the 2nd fastest lap for Race 1 on Saturday and for the 2nd race on Sunday morning he qualified himself on 10th place.

Christopher after the Qualifying : “In the second half of the session I hit the red inner curb too hard and therefor bend the right front damper, which resulted in understeering, hence only
10th for Sunday’s race.
However I’m very much looking forward to the race today as I’m starting from 2nd !

Race 1:

Oschersleben is quite a technical circuit. It is also very demanding on the driver because one little mistake can ruin an entire lap or in a race scenario loose a position.

As the lights when green Chris had a good start, it wasn’t great but it was good enough to get right behind the #1 car of Pieter Schothortst. Approaching the sharp lefthander at Turn 1, Chris
stuck the nose of his #7 Konrad Porsche on the inside and managed to get into the lead.
Right behind him was Alex Riberas trying to chase him down.

After 4 laps Chris pulled a 1 second lead over Alex Riberas in 2nd & Chris’ team mate Christian Engelhart in 3rd. However, due to a crash the safety car got called out
and the entire field got back together.

As the lights on the safety car went off, Christopher had a good restart of the race and immediately could pull away from Riberas.

Having controlled the pace of the race, Chris took the chequered flag after 25 minutes of racing, securing his first win of the season !

Porsche Carrera Cup Hockenheim

Qualifying:

We decided to run the first Qualifying session with just 1 new set of tyres, where as many other teams changed tyres during the 20 minutes.

Christopher clocked in the 3rd fastest laptime for the first race on Saturday.
The first Quali session was filled with plenty of “yellow” flag moments and lots of “traffic”.

The 2nd part of the Quali session was 10 minutes and the “Top 15” of the 1st session had their run.
Chris went on a “cool down lap” before trying for another hot lap, however tyre preassure & temperatures changed which resulted in an unbalanced Porsche 911 GT3 Cup .
Christopher eventually qualifying himself on P12 for the 2nd race.

Race 1:

Starting from P3 Chris was more then exited.

“I’m really looking forward to starting my first race of the 2014 Season from a top 3 position! “

25 minutes lay ahead of the 37 car field.

The red lights vanished and the race was ON! Christopher had a great start, passing Oliver Pla right away for 2nd , however then ran wide in turn 1 and lots 3 positions.
After lap 1 Chris found himself behind Earl Bamber in 5th.

“The car felt very strong in the first half of the race”. Chris was on Bamber’s bumper all the way through, catching up with Nicki Thiim and Phillip Eng in 1st .

After lap 7 or 8, Christopher’s brakes starting to fade which resulting in longer break distances and loss of time.

“I’m happy to finish 4th today, however at the same time I’m a bit disappointed as I had the pace to finish the race on the podium”

Race 2:

The second race of the weekend Chris was starting from the 12th grid position.
Race length was set for 18 laps at 10am on Sunday morning.
Weather conditions were great. 17 degree Celcius and sunshine !

Christopher had a good start and after the first lap he already was on P10
Fighting his way through the field he was in a good battle with Fabian Thuner & Michael Ammermueller.

Eventually Chris got settled into his race rythem and could pull away. With 4 laps to go and in 8th place, Christopher had Alex Riberas in sight in 7th.

Chris after the race: “ It was a great race, had lots of good battles but starting from P12 is just too far behind on the grid. Non the less I am very happy with the weekend and big thanks
to Konrad Motorsport for providing me with such a great Porsche ! "